Monday, January 12, 2009

By now all of you that really follow awards know about last night winners either because you saw the show or for the worldwide extensive coverage. In general I liked the show, with some accepting speeches more interesting than others and on the funny side loved Tina Fey while on the serious and very surprised loved both Kate Winslet speeches.

For me Kate’s two wins was a total surprise, I do believe she deserves the award for Revolutionary Road and now I understand why they nominated her as supporting actress when she had a lead role in The Reader, so she can get both awards! Haven’t been able to see The Reader but obviously is a must be seen for me even before her awards and now more than before. To me she was genuinely surprised the first time and more the second time which is nice to see from such an accomplished actress. Also since the red carpet I got the impression that Kate and Leonardo DiCaprio are really good friends in real life and to be honest, that also is nice to watch in an industry where “acting” friendly seems to be the norm.

Most TV and written press commentators mention that Mickey Rourke winning was no surprise. To me it was sort of a surprise as if you read again (as I just did) winners in most critics’ awards (the foreign press are also movie critics’, remember?) most named Sean Penn and in second place or as a tie, Mickey Rourke. Obviously I enjoyed more Milk than The Wrestler, but I recognize that Rourke did a great job in that movie; still, I’m surprised that he got the award and now I’m really thinking that he has possibilities in the Academy Awards, but honestly I feel that Sean Penn and Frank Langella had better performances than him.

Slumdog Millionaire wins are getting to me. What I mean is that the movie is the underdog among huge Hollywood productions and somehow I’m starting to be glad that a smaller production is getting all the awards for what is nominated. Think that what Steven Spielberg mentioned in his quite nice acceptance speech, applies to this movie now more than ever; he mentioned that nowadays they (Hollywood) is doing (too) many wide audiences movies and he recalled all that movies are also made for individuals. My interpretation is that absolutely movies are for individuals, but once in a while appears a movie that is made for individuals and totally appeals to wider audiences as Slumdog Millionaire is doing. That’s why I’m warming to this movie as even when I still think that there are Bollywood movies with greater production values, none of them have moved world audiences –and particularly American audiences- as this movie is doing. So as many morning news/programs commentators are saying today when they interview Danny Boyle, Dev Patel and Frieda Pinto: “see you at the Academy Awards”.

The most pleasant surprise of the night was Vicky Cristina Barcelona winning Best Picture Comedy/Musical. This is really unexpected in Hollywood, but then this is the Foreign Press so I should have known that had possibilities. I have already mention that Hollywood does not like Woody anymore, so its not surprising if he hasn’t get any recognition in the past ten years or so. But I’m really glad the movie won, as I really loved this movie.

Waltz with Bashir winning is no surprise and somehow I’m glad that won over Gomorrah as absolutely amazes me that animation is getting recognition over “live” performances; but since Persepolis I’m very impressed what filmmakers/storytellers can achieve with the technique and with what I call “adult” stories. Haven’t seen Waltz with Bashir, but I will soon and I have huge expectations even if is a war story.

That’s all I feel like saying about these awards and here are the winners for the Motion Picture categories and if you want to check the TV categories go here.